The Car Connection Expert Review
Likes
- Attractive restyling
- 550-hp V-8 option
- Spacious cargo area
- Capable handling
- 31-mile plug-in hybrid range
Dislikes
- Ride is too firm
- Equipment roster is missing stuff
- Occasionally uncomfortable driver’s seat
- Can Cadillac market a plug-in hybrid?
Buying tip
features & specs
The 2019 Cadillac CT6 is smarter and more powerful, but will that put it on more driver's radars?
The 2019 Cadillac CT6 offers all on paper that a flagship luxury sedan should. It's stylish, a technological leader, and it has one of the industry's most advanced semi-autonomous driver-assist systems. For 2019, it adopts a new twin-turbocharged V-8 engine in a new CT6-V model.
As cool as a 550-hp luxury sedan is, the CT6’s tauter, more stylish skin is what you’ll see first. The minor changes offer a timely mid-cycle update––new headlights and taillights and lightly updated fascias––but their cumulative impact is slight. The headlights scowl ahead, and along with the LED ribbons that flank them, complement the wider and slimmer grille. This is a very handsome car from the front, but not new.
The 2019 CT6 evolves Cadillac’s traditional vertical taillights, by adding an element that bleeds into the trunk where it meets a chrome strip that spans the width of the lid. It’s less successful than the updated fascia—the front end looks wider, but the new rear looks too narrow.
The 4.2-liter twin-turbo V-8 also serves in the CT6 Platinum, albeit in a detuned mode that produces 500 hp. Cadillac carries over the other CT6 engines: a 2.0-liter turbo-4, a V-6, a 3.0-liter twin-turbocharged V-6, and a plug-in hybrid with at least 31 miles of range. But the CT6's future beyond 2019 is unclear, so we'll update here as we learn more.
It’s also an open question as to whether the CT6-V’s new 10-speed automatic will join the range’s less powerful engines. The current CT6 uses a family of 8-speeds.
Active safety will continue to play a major role in the CT6, as it remains the only Cadillac to offer the company’s Super Cruise semi-autonomous driving-assist system.Cadillac skips Super Cruise in the high-performance CT6––if you want the V-8 and Super Cruise, go for the CT6 Platinum.
Beyond Super Cruise, the CT6 ticks all the other boxes for active safety. Automatic emergency braking helps prevent collisions and active lane control keeps it in the white lines. A surround-view camera system helps with tricky parking lot maneuvers, while emergency braking also functions while driving in reverse. Night-vision cameras can make driving in the dark easier.
In early 2019 Cadillac announced that it would draw CT6 production in North America to an end by early 2020.
